The following description of him by Mr. Curran, in Bond's case, has been omitted in the common report:

"I know that Reynolds has laboured to establish a connection between the prisoner and the meeting held at his house; but how does he manage? he brings forward asserted conversations with persons who cannot confront him-with M'Cann, whom he has sent to the grave, and with Lord Edward Fitzgerald, whose premature death leaves his guilt a matter upon which justice dares not to pronounce. He has never told you that he has spoken to any of these in the presence of the prisoner. Are you then prepared, in a case of life and death, of honor and of infamy, to credit a vile informer, the perjurer of an hundred oaths—a wretch whom pride, honour, or religion could not bind? The forsaken prostitute of every vice calls upon you, with one breath, to blast the memory of the dead, and to blight the character of the living. Do you think Reynolds to be a villain? It is true he dresses like a gentleman; and the confident expression of his countenance, and the tones of his voice, savour strong of growing authority. He measures his value by the coffins of his victims; and, in the field of evidence, appreciates his fame as the Indian warrior does in fight by the number of scalps with which he can swell his triumphs. He calls upon you, by the solemn league of eternal justice, to accredit the purity of a conscience washed in his own

Q. Were you ever charged with stealing that money?

A. I never heard that such a charge was made: none of the family ever spoke of it to my face.

Q. Captain Witherington is the son of your mother-in-law?

A. He is.

Q. Did he make that charge?

A. Not to myself. I will mention a circumstance; she had a bond, and gave it to Mr. Jones to purchase a commission: he said the money could not be got; and the £300 was asked to purchase the commission; and I always thought that her son, Edward Witherington got that money. She died suddenly, and had not made a will,

Q. She died suddenly?

A. She died unexpectedly.

Q. She died in forty-eight hours after taking the powder, which you gave to cure her? A. She took the paper on Friday evening, and died on Sunday morning.

atrocities. He has promised and betrayed-he has sworn and forsworn; and, whether his soul shall go to heaven or to hell, he seems altogether indifferent, for he tells you that he has established an interest in both. He has told you that he has pledged himself to treason and to allegiance, and that both oaths has he contemned and broken.* At this time, when reason is affrighted from her seat, and giddy prejudice takes the reins-when the wheels of society are set in conflagration by the rapidity of their own motion-at such a time does he call upon a jury to credit a testimony blasted by his own accusation. Vile, however, as this execrable informer must feel himself, history, alas! holds out too much encouragement to his hopes; for, however base, and however perjured, I recollect few instances, in cases between the subject and the crown, where informers have not cut keen and rode

The following is the list of Reynolds' oaths:

Q. (By Mr. Curran). Can you just tott up the different oaths that you took upon either side?

A. I will give the particulars.

Q. No, you may mention the gross.

A. No; I will mention the particulars. I took an oath of secrecy in the county meeting-an oath to my captains, as colonel. After this I took an oath, it has been said-I do not deny it, nor do I say I took it, I was so alarmed; but I would have taken one if required when the United Irishmen were designing to kill me, I took an oath before a county member, that I had not betrayed the meeting at Bond's. After this I took an oath of allegiance.

Q. Had you ever taken an oath of allegiance before?

A. After this I took an oath before the privy council. I took two, at different times, upon giving information respecting these trials. I have taken three since, one upon each of the trials; and, before I took any of them, I had taken the oath of allegiance.

* Upon one occasion Reynolds saved himself from the vengeance of those whom he had betrayed, in a way that was more creditable to his presence of mind. Before he had yet publicly declared his infidelity to the cause of the United Irishmen, as one of their leaders, Samuel Neilson, was passing at the hour of midnight through the streets of Dublin, he suddenly encountered Reynolds, standing alone and unarmed. Neilson, who was an athletic man, and armed, rushed upon him, and commanded him, upon pain of instant death, to be silent and to accompany him. Reynolds obeyed, and suffered himself to be dragged along through several dark and narrow lanes, till they arrived at an obscure and retired passage in the liberties of Dublin. Here Neilson presented a pistol to his prisoner's breast" What," said the indignant conspirator, "should I do to the villain who could insinuate himself into my confidence for the purpose of betraying me?" Reynolds, in a firm tone, replied, "You should shoot him through the heart," Neilson was so struck by this reply, that, though his suspicions were not removed, he changed his purpose, and putting up his pistol, allowed the other to retire. This fact is given as related by an eminent Irish barrister, to whom it was communicated by one of the parties.-C.

awhile triumphant on public prejudice. I know of few instances wherein the edge of his testimony has not been fatal, or only blunted by the extent of its execution, and retiring from the public view beneath an heap of its own carnage."

Mr. Curran's parting words to the jury in this case have been also omitted in the printed collection of his speeches.

"You have been emphatically called upon to secure the state by a condemnation of the prisoner. I am less interested in the condition and political happiness of this country than you are, for probably I shall be a shorter while in it. I have then the greater claim on your attention and confidence, when I caution you against the greatest and most fatal revolution-that of the sceptre, into the hands of the informer. These are probably the last words I shall ever speak to you; but these last are directed to your salvation, and that of your posterity, when they tell you that the reign of the informer is the suppression of the law. My old friends, I tell you, that, if you surrender yourselves to the mean and disgraceful instrumentality of your own condemnation, you will mark yourselves fit objects of martial law-you will give an attestation to the British minister that you are fit for, and have no expectation of any other, than martial law-and your liberties will be flown, never, never to return! Your country will be desolated, or only become the gaol of the living; until the informer, fatigued with slaughter, and gorged with blood, shall slumber over the sceptre of perjury. No pen shall be found to undertake the disgusting office of your historian; and some future age shall ask-what became of Ireland? Do you not see that the legal carnage which takes place day after day has already depraved the feelings of your wretched population, which seems impatient and clamorous for the amusement of an execution. It remains with you-in your determination it lies-whether that population shall be alone composed of four species of men-the informer to accuse, the jury to find guilty, the judge to condemn, and the prisoner to suffer. It regardeth not me what impressions your verdict shall make on the

fate of this country; but you it much regardeth. The observations I have offered, the warning I have held forth, I bequeath you with all the solemnity of a dying bequest; and oh! may the acquittal of your accused fellow-citizen, who takes refuge in your verdict from the vampire who seeks to suck his blood, be a blessed and happy promise of speedy peace, confidence, and security, to this wretched, distracted, and self-devouring country !"*

The preceding trials were immediately followed by an act of attainder against three of the conspirators who had previously perished, and whose property and consideration pointed them out as objects of this measure of posthumous severity. One of these was Lord Edward Fitzgerald, † a young nobleman, whose high connections and personal qualities excited the most lively sympathy for his unfortunate end. He was one of the leaders against whom Reynolds had given information; and for some weeks had contrived, by disguising and secreting himself, to elude the pursuit of the officers of justice. At length he was traced to an obscure house in the metropolis, and apprehended. He made a desperate resistance, and shortly after died in prison, from the wounds which he had received in the struggle. His widow and infant children petitioned against the bill of attainder, upon which occasion Mr. Curran was heard as their counsel at the bar of the House of Commons.

[Lord Camden, the Viceroy, was vainly appealed to by Lord Edward's family, to take compassion on the widow and three babes, the eldest not four years old, and protect their estate for

Mr. Bond was convicted, and sentenced to die: but, in consequence of a negociation entered into between the government and the state prisoners, of which one of the articles proposed by the latter was that his life should be spared, he was respited. He was shortly after carried off by an attack of apoplexy.-C. [Thomas Davis, giving credence to a charge made by Dr. Madden, in his "United Irishmen," says that there is much evidence to show that Bond was murdered. I confess that I do not see the motive of such a crime.-M.]

+ The other two were Messrs. Cornelius Grogan, and Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey.-C. August 20th, 1798.-C.

them from violence and plunder. The Viceroy would not, or could not, exercise humanity. On the 27th July, 1798, Toler (afterwards Lord Norbury) introduced a bill into the Irish House of Commons, to attaint Lord Edward, and Messrs. Grogan and Harvey. All efforts against this vicarious trial of dead and unconvicted men were fruitless. Arthur Moore (afterwards a judge), Jonah Barrington, and Plunket spoke, as members of Parliament, on the side of humanity. Reynolds, who had been implicitly trusted by Lord Edward, established the case against him. Still, it appeared (as it was) against law and justice to attaint an untried man-every accused person being presumed innocent until convicted, on trial. Mr. Curran's appeal, though powerful, was hopeless.]

His speech upon this question is imperfectly reported; but even had it been more correctly given, the leading topics would be found of too abstract a nature to attract the general reader. It still contains, like almost all his arguments upon the most technical subjects, passages of feeling and interest. At this period, he could never refrain, no matter what the occasion might be, from giving expression to the mingled sentiment of melancholy and indignation with which the scenes that were passing before him had filled his mind.

"Upon the previous and important question, namely, the guilt of Lord Edward (without the full proof of which, no punishment can be just), I have been asked by the committee if I have any defence to go into. I was confounded by the question, which I could not answer; but, upon a very little reflection, I see, in that very confusion, the most conclusive proof of the injustice of the bill; for, what can be more flagrantly unjust than to inquire into a fact, of the truth or falsehood of which no human being can have knowledge, save the informer who comes forward to assert it? Sir, I now answer the question: I have no defensive evidence -it is impossible that I should. I have often of late gone to the dungeon of the captive, but never have I gone to the grave of the